Hermione PreHogwarts
by firenze's-fav
Summary: This story takes place a year before "The Boy Who Lived" got his letter to attend Hogwarts School of witchcraft and wizardy. However Harry is not in the story at all... this story is about the Muggle-born genious who later will become one of Harry's best
1. Intro

**INTRO:**

_Oh no not again!!_

Anne rushed across the room to where baby Hermione was throwing her food off of her highchair. She really did not have time for this today.

Hermione never liked sweet potatoes it seemed...

_Where did all of those butterflies come from..._

"Hermione give me that spoon."

Anne did not like sweet potatoes either. She had just gotten a face full of them... and it never came out of her clothes. _Now I will have to change before I can drop her off at daycare._

KNOCK... KNOCK... KNOCK...

"Hang on Baby Hermy there is someone at the door."

KNOCK... KNOCK... KNOCK... "MUM!!!" Hermione screamed.

Anne jumped out of bed and flew to the door, all the while making a mental note to write that dream in her journal. She snatched open the door to see an almost ten-year-old Hermione staring indignantly up at her.

"Hermione dear, please do not scream like that anymore. You scared me to death."

"But mum, I was just reminding you that you have to drive me to school tomorrow. Don't you remember that I have a Parent / Teacher conference?"

In truth, Anne had not remembered. She was always at the PTA meetings, though sometimes she wondered why it was necessary. She was a lot more interested in finding out why she had been having the exact same dream about Hermione as an infant every night for the past three weeks, but She promised Hermione that she would not forget and got up to walk her to the bus stop.

On the way out the door Hermione did something that she had not done since she was six years old. She ran back into the kitchen to get her lunch. This in itself was not something new, but the fact that her lunch bag had been at least eight inches from her fingers and then was suddenly in her hand made Anne blink and rub her eyes. She had long since given up asking Hermione how she did things like that. Obviously Hermione knew that it made her mother wonder because she had begun to stop doing these odd things when she knew her mother was watching. In fact, Anne wondered if Hermione even knew that she was doing it.

As she always did when her young daughter did something amazing she categorized it in her mind to later put into her notebook.

While standing out at the bus stop Anne asked her daughter what she thought would be discussed at the PTA meeting. In truth, Anne would rather spend the time in the library with her nose in a book, but she knew this was important to her daughter and she was not going to let her down.

"Most likely, they will be discussing the fact that we are still lacking more than eight thousand pounds needed for the new computer systems. I am not sure how that is, I went over all of the seven grades fund-raising projects myself. We do still need money but it shouldn't be any more than..." Hermione pulled a calculator out of her pocket and pushed a rapid serious of buttons, "Seventeen hundred thirty four pounds. I just can't understand where all that money went to."

"That, dear, is why they have a vice principal that looks over all the financial records for the school. Maybe you should try setting up a meeting with him so that you can ask him."

Hermione's eyes glazed over at the idea of getting to question someone that was dreadfully intelligent.


	2. Chapter 1: Research

CHAPTER 1: Research 

Anne put a gold star on the next line in her daily notes section of her Hermione Granger notebook. Then she wrote a few lines about how Hermione had made her lunch box come to her. She scanned the page and then flipped backwards counting the stars. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty, something was definitely happening with her daughter. It was beginning to be completely unnerving, Hermione was capable of such great things but anytime Anne or Harold mentioned anything she became self-conscious and was extremely careful about anything that she was doing.

Anne flipped to another divider labeled "Dreams." Just as she had thought, every single night for the past three weeks Anne dreamt about a baby Hermione sitting in a highchair surrounded by butterflies and then she would just wake up. She began to pour every detail that she could remember onto the paper.

The soft pressure of a hand on the crown of her head brought her out of her stupor just as she was trying with every ounce of might she had to remember what colour the flowers on the linoleum were. She looked up and childishly smiled at her husband.

"Anne darling, I thought I would remind you that today is your day off and you had planned to go to the library to look into Hermione's telepathy more."

Where was her mind going? Not only had she forgotten that she had planned to go to the library but she had altogether forgot that she would normally be getting ready to go to work by now. Her mind really was becoming more and more absent lately. Maybe she was spending too much time trying to figure out what was going on with her only child. But she couldn't help it. She and Harold had decided when they first started to notice unusual things about her that they would not ever notify anyone in the way of scientists or psychologists. Hermione was not only a brilliant child, who had unusual talents and abilities, but she was their daughter and there was no way that they would turn her into a lab rat.

Anne had been keeping a notebook on her daughter since she was only seventeen months old. At first it was very little things, things that if they had happened in any other context would not have been very different from any child. But on their daughters second Valentines Day Hermione forced her parents to realize that she was extremely different from any other seventeen month old. Not only was she already walking, talking, and potty trained, but she began to attract butterflies everywhere that she went. They just started showing up. She was in the kitchen sitting in her highchair eating and she had started talking to herself. Not in the infant gibbering that most toddlers have, but she was having a conversation with herself about how pretty a day it was and then for no reason at all she exclaimed that she did not like "sweet tatos" and she just pushed them off of her tray. Within ten minutes the kitchen was full of every color butterfly imaginable and some like those who looked as if they had been tie-dyed, that were not.

Anne snapped out of her stupor and realized as she had been reading that very entry in her journal that that had been the day that she had been dreaming about for weeks. She quickly flipped to the first section in her notebook, which was now becoming too big for the six-inch binder that it was in, she would have to break down and split all of this stuff into two binders soon. The fist divider was labeled "Possible Answers." She scanned down the very short list: Religion, "Miracle Child," Bad Genes, Need to Survive, Telekinesis. None of these things had every really been practical answers for Anne. Every one of them could be ruled out with very little if any research. She allowed her husband to think that it was simply that Hermione had some form of adolescent telekinesis but Anne knew that even if that were part of it, it wasn't all.

As for being able to move things because of a need to survive, this had been mostly seen in cases where someone had a helicopter sitting on their chest or reaching for a weapon to defend oneself was only an inch or two away. Never before had anyone seen that laziness would be considered as something that would fit into that set of situations. She added DIET to the list and beside it in parentheses she added _sweet potatoes._ She couldn't believe that she was actually considering that something as simple as the food she was eating could be the very answer that she had been looking for all this time, but she refused to eliminate any idea without at least a second look at it. She closed the notebook and quickly got dressed. She looked at her watch and could not believe that she had let an entire hour pass by just looking at a notebook.

Anne was very well known at both the local public library and the medical library at the university. Though not many people thought about her long enough to realize that if she were really simply doing research for her dissertation, as she had said she was, she should have been finished three times over by now. Anne sat herself down at her favorite table in the corner of the Mezzanine level of the library. No one ever came up here and that was how she liked it. The librarians had learned long ago that there was no use in putting the books up that she was using, because she would just have them right back out again the next day. Anne was at the library whenever she had more than twenty minutes of consecutive free time. All of her lunch breaks and days off had been spent there. Also, lately, well the past few years, Hermione had been begging to go to the library every day after school. Hermione now knew the stacks better than some of the adults that had been coming to the library for years.

Anne shook herself out of her daze. She really must stop letting her mind drift off like it had been. She walked over to her personal shelf in the library. Ms. Reeves, the librarian had decided that this would be a lot easier on both of them. She pulled out the old worn copy of the _Journal of Modern Medicine_. And as she was about to sit down again she heard someone clear her throat quite loudly behind her. She turned to see Barbara Lovejoy.

Barbara was the president of the local chapter of the PWA, Professional Women's Association. Anne was not sure how _professional_ she was but she was the only female doctor in the local heart and lung hospital, so that was probably how she had landed the presidency. But whether or not she was the president of the association Anne did not like her. Barbara was a woman that was painfully trendy, and she made it a policy to let others know when they were not. Anne was not looking forward to hearing what Barbara had to say about her being in a public library wearing old worn jeans and a t-shirt. But for once in the entirety of the ten or so years that Anne had known her, this was not what she wanted to tell her.

"Anne, hi how are you?"

"Hi Barbara, I'm good, how are you, and what brings you to the library this time of day?" Anne was quite sure she had never seen Barbara in the library at all, much less this time of day.

"Well my dear, I was actually looking for you, I wanted to inform you that attendance is required at the PTA meeting tomorrow night, and that there will be a PWA meeting to follow."

"Well of course I will be at the meeting, I do have a child that attends that school, in case you had forgotten. And, as for the PWA meeting, unless we are discussing the annual retreat I doubt I will be able to stay for more than ten minutes or so."

"Very well, we will try to keep it as short and painless as possible. See you there."

In truth Anne had despised the PWA ever since she had mentioned that she was concerned about some things that Hermione had been doing around the time that she was three or four. The _lovely_ president told her that no child is _special_ they are all merely unique, and that she had no doubt what-so-ever that Hermione would grow out of whatever was bothering her mother. The only thing that had made her decide to stay in the association at all was the fact that they had weekly play dates for all of the children. This had been for the longest time the only time that Anne had been able to convince Hermione that it would do her good to play with children her own age, and Anne had no intentions of demonstrating to her young daughter what it was to be a quitter.

Anne refused to believe that Hermione was just going through a phase, there was no way that her telekinesis and ability to make things just appear out of thin air was her imagination. But one thing was for sure; she was not going to get anything accomplished today if she could not at least make her mind quit wandering. Anne pulled out her notebook and turned to the "Possible Answers" section. She could not believe that she was actually about to look up sweet potatoes to see if they had any known history of creating abnormalities in children.


	3. Chapter 2: A P7 Morning

Chapter 2: A P7 Morning 

Sitting on the bus on the way to school, Hermione's mind was going a mile a minute. She had never thought about asking to meet with the school vice principal in charge of finance before. But why shouldn't she, all she wanted to know was where she had gone wrong in her calculation of how much money the fundraising had made. She decided that when the other children went outside to play for their break that she would ask Ms. Rose for a pass to the office.

Selena Rose was Hermione's favorite teacher ever. She wasn't like other teachers that she had known. Ms. Rose never fussed at her for finishing her work early, and she always had plenty more for whenever Hermione wanted it. She was pretty sure that no other P7 student was reading the Canterbury Tales, nor were any of them taking a stab at geometry and basic trigonometric principles. But, Ms. Rose had said that this was to be a secret just between the two. This made Hermione think that this was something she shouldn't go talking about with all of the other students. This wouldn't be hard, especially since she hardly ever talked to any of them anyway.

This was the first year that Ms. Rose had not had any complaints about her teaching style. In fact, this was the first year that the principal had not had to withdraw a single student from the class. It would seem to any outsider that Ms. Rose had made a complete turn around in her teaching style. This was true, but the real turn around was that she wasn't teaching at all. It was almost as if she was completely enchanted by Hermione. Hermione was the only student that Selena ever spoke to and on most days Hermione and Ms. Rose were in the library together or outside under a tree discussing things that were usually reserved for students much older.

Hermione loved school, she loved everything about it, but most of all she loved numbers. Numbers, in her opinion, were one of the few things that are concrete, they can be manipulated to make different numbers but they themselves do not change with out reason. Hermione looked up to see that they were pulling into the schoolyard. She hastily shoved her journal and her special fountain pen that Ms. Rose had given her back into her bag.

Once inside the classroom, Hermione took out her journal again and continued to write, she still had at least twenty minutes before anyone else would be in the room.

September 9th

Today I was able to make my lunch box come to me by only thinking about it in my hand. Ms. Rose was right, there is something special about me. I only wish that mother wouldn't worry about me so. She still is keeping notes on every little thing that I do. That notebook that she has is getting way too full for just one binder. It is hard to believe that she has been watching me so closely all these years. But then again, I suppose she is concerned. I love my mother, but sometimes I worry that whatever it is that is wrong with me will haunt her forever. Maybe I will ask her if I can see the notebook, maybe the answer is in there somewhere and she has simply looked at it so many times that it doesn't make sense to her anymore. Maybe I will ask Ms. Rose, she seems to know what I am thinking sometimes before I do. When I grow up I want to be a teacher just like her.

Oh I almost forgot, well of course I did not really forget, there are only ten days left until I am ten years old. I am beginning to feel so grown up. Mummy says I can have a party at the play date for the PWA children. At least there will be cake and ice cream.

Hermione shut her journal and pulled out the book of higher-level math problems that Ms. Rose had given her the day before. She couldn't explain it but numbers made perfect sense to her. Granted there had been some things about numbers and math that she did not understand at first. And many things that she had to work at to grasp, but if she ever decided that she wanted to do something she was able to, eventually. Books, however were a completely different subject. Hermione had never once read a book that she did not learn something from. At age five she was given a dictionary. Every time she looked up a word she marked it, and never once had she looked up the same word twice.

Ms. Rose came in looking extremely cheerful. Ms. Rose's attitude was a book-worthy story in and of itself. Until this year she had been notorious for being the absolute meanest teacher in the entire district. She typically gave extreme amounts of homework and was not sympathetic towards her students at all. If Hermione had had friends outside of the PWA play dates she probably would have been told to be worried about having her, but since she didn't, she was not worried in the least. This year Ms. Rose had split her class into groups that were taught by the aides. This way they were less of a bother to her and that left time for Selena to work one on one with Hermione. No one, including the other students, objected to this; in their opinion the less involved Ms. Rose was, the better.

Hermione went to the teacher's desk and shared her plan for interrogating... err... questioning the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues about the fundraising funds during lunchbreak. Hermione was ecstatic when Ms. Rose said that there was no reason to wait for recess time, why not go during the morning break. This was amazing; once again Ms. Rose had been able to tell that this was something that was important to Hermione and she had decided to help her out. And Ms. Rose was actually going to go with her. Not that she would have minded having to speak with the secretary by her herself, but with another adult there maybe she would be taken seriously.

Hermione beamed and went back to her desk to analyze the financial document she had updated twice a week the whole of last year. She had so many questions that she wanted to ask, she could hardly sit still. She was so involved with rechecking the results of the third grade candy sale that she did not even hear the announcement about the next major project that the class would be working on. Normally the idea of an independent project would have made Hermione ecstatic, but today she was all too worried about making sure that she had her facts straight for the meeting. If there was one thing that Hermione loathed more than anything else, it was not being taken seriously by adults.

Hermione looked up when one of the aides snapped a ruler on the desk of Alyssa Dawne. This was when she saw that there was a bright green slip of paper sitting on the corner of her desk. She could hardly control her excitement when she read it:

**Second Major Project for P7 Students**

All P7 students must demonstrate a basic understanding of genealogy. Genealogy is the study of a person's background, more commonly known as a family tree. Students will be required to go at least two generations back, extra credit will be awarded to those who take the initiative to investigate further. Special circumstances such as adoptions and divorces will be taken into consideration. If one of these, or something else, will possibly hinder you from this project feel free to discuss it with your teacher.

Projects will require students to know the name and at least one fact about each member of their family for the past two generations. This includes parents, their siblings (your aunts and uncles), their siblings children (your cousins), your parent's parents (your grandparents), and their siblings (your great-aunts and great-uncles).

No specific format is required, therefore this information may be presented in a tree format, an outline, or more simply in a formal essay. All projects will be required to be turned in on the second Monday in January. As is obvious by the amount of time given for it, it should be assumed that this is to be a well thought out project.

Could she have read that right, she had finally been given an assignment that she was not only happy to be doing, but it was something that she was enthusiastic about. She would finally have an excuse to rummage through her mother's old picture books. This was going to be so much fun.


	4. Chapter 3: Disturbances

Chapter 3: Disturbances 

Anne had had enough of the library for today. Nothing that she had found linked sweet potatoes to anything that was going on with Hermione. Not that she wasn't surprised by this, but it was so hard to cope with the fact that she had hit yet another dead-end. She just wanted a hot cup of tea and a good book. She needed to get her mind off of her daughter. It was not doing anyone any good for her to be doing all of this research if she was not going to be coherent enough to determine what any of it meant in the end. She just needed some tea, perhaps with honey.

Anne sat her notebook and her jacket on the table. She had finally broke down and bought a second binder so that she could split up her notes some. But that could wait, she needed some tea. She put the kettle on to boil and set about finding her favorite cup. She grabbed a stool and climbed up onto the counter. It just had to be there. Her favorite cup could not have disappeared. Her grandmother would be absolutely disappointed in her if she knew that one of the two things that she had left Anne was now missing. She had to find that teacup.

She was still searching through every cupboard and drawer when she realized that Hermione was home from school and was standing next to the stove where the kettle was whistling away. "Careful 'Mione, that is way to hot for you to be messing with." At this Hermione stalked over to the table and sat down. Something was quite obviously wrong with her, and Anne was not so far gone looking for the cup to notice.

"What is wrong dear, what happened at school today?"

"Well, I did what you suggested and went to have a meeting with the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues." Hermione looked up at her mother, and Anne felt unsettled to see that her tears were about to brim over.

"Yes dear, and what happened?" Anne had a feeling she knew what had happened, her brilliant daughter had probably been shot down again and had been told that she had been sticking her nose in places it did not belong, but she wanted to be sure before she went and had a _private_ _meeting_ with this Vice Principal in charge of financial issues.

"Well, - sniff - I went during the morning break, and Ms. Rose came with me - hic! - She said that it was a very good idea to see where all the money went to since I was so curious. - Hic! - And, she wanted to make sure that I was told the truth and not simply sent away like any other nine year old would be."

Anne had liked Ms. Rose since the moment she met her at the meeting before the school year even began. She had always been made out to be such a mean and spiteful woman, but with Hermione she was absolutely wonderful. "Maybe we should invite her over for dinner one night, your Ms. Rose that is; she seems like such a nice person."

At this, Hermione's sniffling burst out into uncontrollable sobs. "YOU CAN'T," she sobbed. "BECAUSE SHE WAS FIRED TODAY!" Hermione continued to cry uncontrollably and it was all Anne could do to calm her down enough to drink some tea.

After a few minutes Hermione was composed enough to tell her mother what had happened. "Well you see, we were in the office of the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues and I was showing him all of my charts and graphs so that he could see that I was not some simple nine year old. It was going so well. Granted, he had not answered any of my questions, but he was at least listening to me. I though I was doing such a good job and, I wanted Ms. Rose to be proud of me, to show her that I could do it. But when I turned and smiled at her, that mean old Secretary started shouting about how she had put me up to it."

"He said that it had been long coming and that trying to weasel her way into the school's finances was the last straw. Mummy, what did he mean? Ms. Rose was just there to make sure that I was treated fairly. She wasn't being a weasel. And, I liked Ms. Rose, she was the nicest teacher ever, and now she is gone. And, he still didn't tell me where all the extra fundraising money went to."

Anne had heard enough, she knew there was no way that Ms. Rose had any ulterior motives when she offered to go with Hermione to the office. This_ was_ the last straw, but not in Ms. Rose's teaching career. Tomorrow would be the last day that Hermione went to a public primary school. She could not believe that someone would have the audacity to yell at someone in front of her young daughter. Hermione was smart, that was not news to anyone who knew her, but to yell at a teacher, a favorite teacher at that, and to fire her in front of a student. That was absolutely uncalled for, and the entire school was going to hear about it.

As Anne tucked Hermione into bed that evening she promised her that it would all be taken care of at the PTA meeting the following night.


	5. Chapter 4: A New Dream

**Chapter 4: A New Dream**

Anne was unwrapping the last present on the table. "At least this one doesn't look like another toaster, Harold, come in here this is the last one." A twenty-six year old Anne was sitting cross-legged in an enormous armchair. Glasses on the tip of her nose, her wavy brown hair was pulled up into a loose bun that had obviously been slept on. She only had one sock on and her t-shirt was on inside out. As Harold walked into the room he couldn't keep his eyes off of her. She was the most beautiful woman that he had ever met, and he had been thrilled to death when she accepted his offer of marriage. She looked up at him over the rims of her glasses, her brown eyes were so bright, and she was gorgeous.

"Harold, come here, this one is from my grandmother. I have a feeling that this gift is most certainly not something as dreadfully boring as a toaster."

"Is this the grandmother that makes things fly about the room?"

"Yes. She was a magician's assistant for almost ten years. She is also my most favorite adult in the entire world. She is also a very good storyteller. She would spin these yarns that were miles long, about the simplest thing like going to school."

"Well, let's see what the old bird gave you."

Anne opened the paper on the gift. She was extremely careful with it; it genuinely looked as if it could be made from a thin sheet of pure gold. Instead of finding a gift, as she was somewhat expecting she found two boxes. One of them small and square, the other was long and thinner. Harold was about to open then when Anne found a note.

My darling Anne,

Sorry to say but only one of these gifts is for you. The other belongs to my first-born great-granddaughter. I know her name, but I am sorry that I cannot tell you. To be quite sure, though, she will be so extremely wonderful, and much like her mother. If I am correct in my thinking, this letter should be delivered to Her on September 19th 1991. This will be Her tenth birthday. The smaller square box is for you. I hope that you will remember it from your childhood. I did so love helping you to grow up. You make me so proud.

--Estella--

"Well then, what on earth do you make of that? That woman is now predicting the future."

Anne wasn't listening to what her husband was saying, she had no doubt whatsoever that her great-grandmother was a very special person. If she said that Anne was going to have a baby, Anne believed her. She did some quick math in her head and counted the months on her hand.

"But Harold that would mean that I am pregnant now. If our daughter is to be born," Anne counted on her fingers again, "in September then I must be pregnant now. What are we going to name her? We have to get the nursery painted. This is going to be so much fun. I have to tell my mother."

"Anne, before we start painting and sending out notices, don't you think that we should check and make sure that you are in fact pregnant. I have no doubt whatsoever that your great grand is right, but tomorrow is Christmas and we really need to get all the thank you cards made for the wedding gifts."

Anne knew her husband was right, but she also knew that she was in fact pregnant. She picked up the small square box that had come from her grandmother. When she touched it, the box changed colors. She loved presents from Estella. They had been the only ones that she ever really looked forward to. As she carefully opened the box tiny butterflies flew off in ever direction. She looked around amazed, but then noticed that Harold wasn't even looking at the butterflies.

"What are you waiting for, are you going to open it or just look at the box?"

Anne was amazed her husband not only did not see the butterflies, but he also did not see that the box was changing colors, and he was staring right at it. Baffled Anne opened the box and pulled out a very delicate looking teacup. The teacup started to get hot and Anne couldn't hold on to it anymore. She was about to drop it. But she couldn't it was a wedding gift. She had to hold onto it. But it was just so hot. She was losing her grip she was going to drop it.

CRASH!!

Anne jerked awake. She looked around to see where she was. "That's impossible," she said as she looked at the clock. According to the clock she had only been asleep for twenty minutes. But she had been dreaming, and more importantly, it was not the same dream about Hermione that she had been having. She grabbed her notebook and started scribbling away. Everything about the dream was exactly how it had been when that day had really happened; well all except for her dropping the teacup. She had not done that. That teacup had been used almost every day for the past ten years. But it was odd that she would have that dream after not being able to find it that day.

Anne decided that it would be worth a try to see if she could find it, and since she was now wide awake, after half an hour of detailing everything, she thought, 'why not have a look now?' Anne stood up from her desk and heard a noise that sounded like it was coming from the kitchen. It was almost midnight, who would still be up? She looked at the other side of the bed and sure enough Harold was still asleep. She was almost positive that no one had gotten into the house; there had not been enough noise to suggest that someone had broken in. She decided that it was most likely her imagination, and walked quietly down the hallway towards the kitchen. When she pushed open the swinging door she got the shock of her life.


	6. Chapter 5: A New Day

**Chapter 5: A New Day**

There was someone in the kitchen; in fact, there was more than one person there. Her daughter Hermione and Hermione's teacher Ms. Rose were sitting casually at the kitchen table drinking tea.

"Well, ahem..." Anne said with her hand over her heart trying to get it to calm down. "Hermione, dear, can I please ask why on earth you are up at midnight. And perhaps more importantly why on earth Ms. Rose is here in our house?" Anne did not dislike Ms. Rose, in fact one might possibly go so far as to say that she liked the woman very much, but that still did not grant her permission to be in her house well after midnight when only Hermione was awake.

"Mum, Ms. Rose really wanted to talk to you, she said that it was dreadfully important. But when I told her that you were asleep, she said that you actually weren't that you were writing in your notebook, and that got a conversation started. We had guessed that you would come out eventually so we decided to wait."

"Mrs. Granger, please do excuse the intrusion but Hermione is correct in saying that it was very important that I see you. I suppose that you have been told by your lovely daughter that I was fired earlier today."

"Yes, in fact I was told, that is why I decided that after the PTA meeting tonight that Hermione will no longer be enrolled in that school.

Hermione didn't know whether to be shocked, hurt, excited, or thrilled with this news. She knew her mother would not hold her back from getting the best education possible, so she decided that what ever her mother decided she would agree with. But she was still confused on one thing, "Mum, if I am not going to be going to public school anymore, does that mean that I will have to be home schooled?"

"There are other alternatives, such as boarding school, but yes darling, I had intended you to be home schooled."

"Mum, if I am going to be taught at home, who is going to do it? You and Daddy both work, and there is no way I want to be a dentist when I grow up."

Anne and Ms. Rose both laughed. They were truly kindred spirits. There was now no doubt whatsoever in Anne's mind about what she wanted to do about Hermione's education. "Actually Hermione, I had hoped to ask Ms. Rose if she would possibly be interested in becoming your teacher."

Hermione squealed with delight and Anne and Selena both shushed her at the same time. "Your father is still asleep Hermione. This still has to be discussed with him you know. There is no way that I am going to make such a momentous decision without at least pretending to want his input. But the fact of the matter is that I had planned to ask Ms. Rose if she had another job lined up already. So, Selena, would you like to be Hermione's teacher?"

"Please Ms. Rose!! PLEASE! ," squealed Hermione.

"Surely you knew that I would love nothing better than to be Hermione's sole teacher. She was already ahead of the typical P7 material anyway. It will do her good to have a curriculum focused around her specific needs. But I do think," she was now talking to Hermione, "that you should still go to the PTA meeting and inquire about the deficits in the computer funding. You didn't get a very good answer the last time you asked."

"Perhaps we can do a sort of slide show to make the facts a little bit clearer." This was Anne's idea. Soon they had colored paper and markers strewn across the table drawing out each chart and including every piece of data. It was a very good thing that it was a Saturday. If it had been a weekday there would have been no way that any of them would have made it to school or work. Around 3:30am they had finished drawing out the way they wanted each slide to look and Selena volunteered to take them to the copy shop to have the slides made.

In total there were twenty-three slides. And at the end they were all quite proud of the work they had done. They had made it perfectly clear that there was in fact money missing from the total that they had been given by the Vice Principal in charge of financial issues, but that was only the beginning. They had no idea where the money had actually gone, and they intended to find out.


	7. Chapter 6: The PTA Meeting

**Chapter 6: The PTA meeting**

Ms. Rose picked up the slides from the processor at seven that evening. They had all decided that they would go eat dinner together before going to the meeting. Selena did not like to go out to eat, but she had decided that it was a special occasion, a celebration even and that she could put up with all the people for one night.

At the restaurant Hermione acted like she was on cloud nine. Everything was going perfectly in her opinion. After tonight she would never have to go back to that horrible school. She would not have to put up with other students being mean to her for simply being more intelligent than they were. She would finally get to figure out where the extra money from the fundraiser went, but best of all, she would still get to keep Ms. Rose as her teacher.

Their salads came and they started eating and talking. Hermione only had to be called down once for talking with her mouth full, which she politely explained was because, "I have so much stuff in my head that if I don't say it when I think it, it will get pushed out of the way and I will forget it." Both Anne and Selena laughed at this. Finally they started discussing how Hermione's studies were going to be arranged. Selena said that since tomorrow would be Friday there was not any real use in starting work until Monday. Hermione was slightly upset at this. She liked the weekends, but only because it gave her more time to work on the extra work that Ms. Rose gave her. This weekend however, she would spend arranging the spare bedroom into her classroom.

Hermione went into a sort of daze dreaming of all the things that she would need to get in order to make her private classroom perfect. She was so glad that her mother had decided that Friday would be a perfect day to get some shopping done. Hermione had plenty of things that she needed, and her birthday was coming up so there was going to be no way that her mother wouldn't buy the things for her.

Hermione came out of her stupor when she realized that her dinner had been put in front of her. She didn't quite see how her mother and Ms. Rose could be eating when such a fantastic thing was about to begin. But as she began to watch Ms. Rose eating she realized that something funny was going on. She had somehow managed to get Italian dressing out of the ketchup bottle. Hermione asked for the ketchup and Ms. Rose passed it to her, but all Hermione could get out of it was in fact ketchup. She was about to ask how that had happened but her mother looked over and told her that she needed to eat if they were going to make it to the PTA meeting on time. Hermione continued to watch Ms. Rose in case she might do something else that was odd, but when nothing else happened she dismissed it as seeing something that hadn't really happened.

They finished eating and walked out to the street to catch a cab. It was only a five-minute ride to the school and Hermione was glad for this, she was excited about getting to find out where the money had gone. They were inside and seated when the vice principal began to speak. According to the mini program that listed the topics that would be discussed that night, the computers were in fact going to be discussed, that however was the last thing on the list. Hermione began to get fidgety as everything else was discussed. That was until Mr. Parks announced that he was going to be adding something into the program at the very end about a certain teacher that would no longer be working at the school. Hermione looked at her mom and Anne shook her head in a way that meant "just be quiet he is just trying to stir things up."

Hermione had to exercise a lot of self-control to make herself remain calm until Mr. Parks got to the computers. She had begun to count backwards and forwards to ten inside of her head. Finally Mr. Parks started:

i b "Now we come to an issue that is very important the students in particular. Last fall we started a fundraising campaign. This campaign was started to raise money to purchase some new computers. The students have done several fundraisers throughout all the seven grades on this school. They have done a very good job and I think they deserve a round of applause." /i /b 

This was a very halfhearted applause, as everyone in the audience could tell that he was about to announce some very negative news.

i b "There has simply not been enough participation on the parents side. These children have been working extremely hard yet we are still just over eight thousand pounds short. /i /b 

One woman stood up in the middle of the audience, i "Exactly how much money have we raised Mr. Parks?" /i 

i b "Well, let's see now I have the totals broken down by each grade. Just give me one second to add them up and I will be able to give you a definitive answer." /i /b 

He was obviously stumbling. Hermione couldn't believe that he hadn't expected this. Of course the parents would want to know how much money they had raised. For them to still need 8000 pounds after a year of fundraising was too much for most of them to swallow.

After two or three minutes of Mr. Parks shuffling papers and holding up fingers Anne nudged Hermione and nodded at the stage. Hermione got the idea as they had been rehearsing this all day. Hermione stood up and Selena and Anne went to the back of the room where they had stashed the slide projector.

At first people were muttering to themselves thinking who knows what, but then they noticed that there was someone else on the stage, a someone that had extremely bushy brown hair. And she was tugging on Mr. Parks' sleeve trying to get his attention. Obviously he was riled because he very harshly and almost directly into the microphone said, i b "What do you want? Oh it is you Miss Granger, now is not a good time. I am very busy at the moment. /i /b 

But Hermione was insistent. She pulled on his sleeve once more and said in a very flat voice, i "I will take it from here, Mr. Parks." /i 

He looked speechlessly at the slide that was being projected over his head onto the back of the wall.

b center u THE TRUE TRUTH ABOUT THE COMPUTER FUNDRAISING /b /u /center 

There was a considerable amount of mumbling and quiet chattering, but as soon as Hermione Granger, a mere nine year old, began talking everyone started listening. Hermione explained that she had been keeping track of all the monies that were turned into the office for the computers. She had a slide for each of the seven grades and she had many more slides that showed, without the merest shadow of a doubt that they, if she had added correctly, (which got a pretty decent laugh from the crowd) were only seventeen hundred and thirty-four pounds short.

This was met with a great round of applause after which the same woman from before, who Hermione later found out was the head of the PTA, stood up to ask another question,

i "Mr. Parks," /i He now quickly came back to the stage, i "Mr. Parks, can you please explain to us how..." /i 

b i "Of course I can miss Smithe, it is quite obvious that this, very precocious child has been influenced by the malignancy that is the teacher that I mentioned before. This teacher will no longer be working here and that is the end of this meeting." /b /i 

He said all this very fast and when he had finished he walked off stage.

i "Mr. Parks," /i Very begrudgingly he shuffled back onto the stage to where Hermione still stood, i "Mr. Parks, now that you have got that out of your system perhaps you will let me properly ask my question. How is it that this little girl, Sweetie what grade are you in?" /i 

i "P7, miss." /i Hermione said without the slightest of a hesitation.

i "That this very young, yet very bright," /i she added with the slightest of nods to Anne as she and Selena came back to the front of the room to join Hermione on the stage, i "P7 student can know all of these very well formatted facts, while you cannot even tell us how much money has been raised. And we will simply not be discussing the fact that there is a slight difference in the amounts that were announced by you and young Miss Granger. That is a topic for another day." /i 

Mr. Parks sighed slightly, thinking that there would be time for him to come up with some other excuse for why the funds had suddenly turned up missing.

i "But I am sure that Miss Granger would be eager to be present to offer you details of anything else that you seemed to have misplaced." /i Finished Mrs. Smithe.

The room was abuzz with laughter and chatter as everyone began to leave the room. Hermione was very tired even though there had been a lot of excitement, she would be very eager to get home and get in bed.

Her mother and Ms. Rose spoke with Mrs. Smithe for a few more minutes before noticing that Hermione was beginning to doze off in her chair. They said their goodbyes and headed their own ways.


End file.
